Mr. Speaker, Mingli Lin, a former prisoner of conscience, continues to languish in China even though this House voted unanimously to permit him to rejoin his family here in Canada.
In October 2002 the Commons voted to permit the entry to this country of 13 Falun Gong practitioners, including Mingli Lin. In violation of the will of the House, a Canadian consular official in Shanghai refused to issue a visa to Mingli Lin. On April 21 of this year, I hand delivered a letter to the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration advising her that her officials were acting in contempt of Parliament and requesting that she intervene personally.
The minister wrote back that she would not issue a ministerial permit, but that if Mingli Lin were to travel to a third country, which of course he cannot do, he could apply for entry to Canada as a refugee.
The minister should hang her head in shame for actively obstructing the unanimous will of the House and for preventing a model citizen from being reunited with his family on our shores.